Mendon resident, 98, awarded Boston Post Cane

MENDON - After being awarded the Boston Post Cane award, Grace Lovely reflected on her 98 years of life.

"I didn't plan on living this long, no secret to that," said Lovely.

The Boston Post Cane was awarded to her on Jan. 27, and was given to her by the Mendon Council on Aging and the Friends of the Elders, congratulating her on being Mendon's oldest resident.

Lovely was born in Brockton, but her family moved to Milford after she graduated from Brockton High School in 1938. In Milford, she met the man who became her husband, Leo Lovely. They married in 1940.

"I lived on Main Street in Milford, and I was mowing the lawn when I saw him," said Lovely. "I made it so that he had to stop and talk to me. He wasn't going to get away."

In 1952, Lovely and her husband bought nearly 2 acres of land in Mendon for $500. They built their home from the ground up.

"It took us three years to build that house," said Lovely.

"When we moved into Mendon, there were probably like six houses on the street," said Sharon Feccia, Lovely's daughter.

Lovely said she spent a lot of her life working. She worked as a loan teller for the Norfolk County Trust Company in Brookline for 31 years before she became a bookkeeper for the Franklin News Company, and a bookkeeper fro the Fall River News.

"I worked until I was 90," said Lovely, who turns 99 on July 10. "I had two or three spare jobs after I retired."

After she was widowed in 1973, Lovely felt the need to continue working in order to support her family.

"I was alone, and my husband died, so I had to get by," said Lovely.

The couple also had a son, Leo John Lovely Jr., who passed away in 2006, an event that shook Lovely and her family.

"I would always say, 'It should have been me,"' said Lovely.

"Anyone that loses a child understands that feeling," said Feccia.

As one of seven, Lovely said she outlived all of her siblings.

"They are all gone but me, I'm the last one," said Lovely.

Lovely said the town has changed since her early days in Mendon. She said there were fewer homes back then, and more farmlands.

"It was a little hick town, and now it is a big hick town," said Lovely.

Lovely remembers having to travel to Milford to get the mail because there was no delivery service in Mendon at the time. She also remembers dialing an operator on the phone every time she needed to call someone.

On one occasion, Lovely remembers seeing an escaped primate from SouthWick's Zoo in her yard.

"I was doing my dishes in the kitchen sink, and I saw something swinging in the trees," said Lovely. "I called someone, and they came to catch him."

This was not the only time she noticed animals drawn to her home, she also remembers seeing wild turkeys congregating on the roof of her home.

"Turkeys got up on my roof, and I chased them away with pans, wooden spoons, and brooms," said Lovely.

As an avid gardener, she said her garden was filled with many crops, including lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, beats, etc.

"We had so much in the garden, it was so overgrown," said Lovely.

With the food she produced, she usually had enough for her family as well as any guests they invited over for meals.

"We always had room for somebody else," said Lovely. "We didn't have much money, but we had a lot of fun."

Lovely said she made many friends in Mendon, and building those friendships was the most important lesson she learned in her long life.

"Be kind to your neighbors, and be kind to everybody," said Lovely. "Make good friends, and keep them."

"She has been the rock in the family," said Feccia.

As the matriarch of her family, she has seen two children, four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild enter the family.

"It feels like I'm old, I'm only 98," said Lovely.

Christian Yapor can be reached at 508-634-7521, or at cyapor@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChristianYapor.